If you have a Macbook, you might be frustrated by how much Apple locks down the operating system. It's not too bad when you consider that you can still modify quite a bit, but it does feel as if the operating system is sanitized and protected from the user as much as possible. Even the settings options can be quite lackluster, but there are programs out there that you can use to modify your system in many different ways. These are the 10 tweaks I've made to my MacBook Pro that I can't live without.

Many of these tweaks require Almighty or TinkerTool to enable them. TinkerTool is a completely free application, whereas Almighty has a pro edition with additional tweaks. None of these tweaks require a paid subscription, and you can do nearly everything in this list entirely for free. The only exception is NotchNook, but it's too good not to share.

10 Caps lock delay

One of the first things I changed

One of the first things I noticed with my MacBook that really bothered me was the delay before I could turn on or off caps lock when I was typing. If you're typing quickly and want to quickly enable caps lock, you can't by default, and there's no user-facing way to disable this feature. However, there's a quick Terminal command you can use to turn it off.

hidutil property --set '{"CapsLockDelayOverride":0}' That's it! Once you've run it, it's immediately in effect. Your caps lock delay will now be switched off, so you can type as fast as you want and switch caps lock on and off without getting frustrated about unnecessary delays to your typing.

9 Stop accidentally changing your dock size

I keep doing it

Something I've done a few times in the past when switching applications on my Mac is accidentally modifying the size of the dock. It's a quick fix, but it's still annoying. TinkerTool has a feature that you can use to prevent that though, so that you can't accidentally drag your dock to be a different size.

It may sound small, but it's a pretty killer feature that makes my life a little bit easier.

8 Disable the changing file type warning

I know what I'm doing, let me change it

If you want to change the file type of a file, Finder will warn you that you shouldn't do that unless you know what you're doing. I know what I'm doing, but there's no way to tell Finder to stop telling me that whenever I do it. You can disable that feature though with a pretty simple Terminal command.

defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableExtensionChangeWarning -bool false Once you've done that, the warnings will now go away, and you can change your file types whenever you want without Finder shouting at you and popping up with a warning each and every time.

7 Always show hidden files

MacOS still doesn't have a native option for this?

To show hidden files when you're browsing on your Mac, the command is Command + Shift + ., but that's annoying to need to press every time, especially when most of the folders you interact with aren't hidden. The places where you're most likely to have hidden folders will be the places that you wouldn't be going to unless you were looking for your hidden folders in the first place.

Thankfully, TinkerTool has a feature that you can enable to always show hidden files and folders. This means you can go to a folder and see all of its contents immediately, rather than needing to press that key combo every time just to see everything that's inside of a folder. Apple really seems to hate power users, and this is just an example of that.

6 Control your screenshots

Format, location, and more

There's a lot you can't control with screenshots on Mac, and TinkerTool gives you complete control over them. You can set the image format, change how files are named, change where they're automatically stored, and more. It's a great little tweak that gives you a ton of control, and can only take a few minutes for you to set up to get it the way you like it.

5 Emoji picker

Using Emojis on Mac can be annoying

If you want to send emojis on a Mac and find that it's annoying, you're not alone. There's a pretty easy fix for it though, as Almighty comes with a free tweak that adds an emoji picker to your menu bar at the top. Rather than needing to press a complicated key bind to quickly send an emoji in your response, you can just click at the top to quickly get one that you can paste into your chat.

Almighty even gives you the ability to send a key bind for it so that you can quickly call it up and start typing without needing to move your mouse cursor. It's very useful!

4 Add a middle click to your Mac's touchpad

Triple tapping is back on the menu

If you want to have the experience of a mouse without actually having a mouse, you can add a triple tap to your touchpad with Almighty that will enable you to tap your mousepad three times. On the third tap, keep holding the touchpad, and it will simulate a mouse middle click that you can then use to scroll up or down.

While it mightn't be useful for everyone, it's worth trying out to see if it helps you at all.

3 Show file types at all times

See what your files are at a glance

If you want to see what type of files you have in a folder at all times, there's a basic terminal command you can run to enable just that.

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleShowAllExtensions -bool true Paste that in your Terminal and hit enter. In Finder, you'll notice that all of your files have a file type at the end, now. You can use the same command but change "true" to "false" if you want to go back to the way things were.

2 NotchNook

Turn your Mac's notch into a dynamic island

If you have an iPhone and have wondered why Apple hasn't brought Dynamic Island features to the Mac, you're not alone. NotchNook does exactly that, though, and turns your Mac's notch into something genuinely useful. It has media playback controls, shortcuts, a calendar, a mirror, and more. You can customize your nook to match your exact preferences, and there's a lot you can do with it.

It's definitely not a necessity, but NotchNook is a fantastic app that will transform the notch on your Mac. Nobody needs it, but it's a great piece of software to have if you want to improve your Mac experience.

1 Show Stats, all the time

SSD, RAM, CPU, and more

Stats is another program I use all the time on my Mac, and it's pretty simple. It shows you more information about your Mac in the menu bar so that you can get a better picture of your Mac's overall health. From CPU usage to RAM usage and even features like battery health, Stats is a great tool that you can use to get an overview of what your laptop is doing.

Stats is a completely free and open-source application that I highly recommend using. It's a pretty close-to-perfect application that I'm amazed is free.